


Natural Progression

by WaltzQueen



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Killer!Jake, cause fuck it i like werewolves and you cant stop me, werewolf!jake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 05:34:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14784476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaltzQueen/pseuds/WaltzQueen
Summary: Jake didn't want this shit. But if Jake wanted peace, he was going to have to fight for it.





	Natural Progression

Jake had never wanted any of this. He had gone to the woods to escape.

He couldn't deal with the disappointment and the upturned noses and the silent **(** and not **so** silent **)** scorn. So he dropped everything **,** and went to live in the woods over the vocal, pointed protest of his father. Then **,** Jake found himself in a different kind of woods, where the trees looked less like trees and more like cheap approximations. The ambient sounds of wild creatures were gone almost entirely and in their place were the shrill whine **s** of other people.

The campfire and all the people around it were comforting **,** at first. A steady hand on his shoulder, stupid jokes to help keep the terror at bay, the simple comfort of human touch after so long without were all more than welcome as he slogged through the mire. But like all things **,** it couldn't last. As the hunters became keener, the pressure rose and every trial was a new type of struggle.

Jake sat with his back to the treeline only to be be shoved almost directly into the fire. His quick recovery meant that Nea's next swipe missed. "Knock it off, Nea. The fuck?"

"Fuck you, Park!" Nea swung out a fist, forcing Jake to move back. "You piece 'a shit."

Bill, having just emerged from the treeline with Claudette in tow, swooped in like an aging bird of prey to grab her. With his arms around her chest she could do nothing but hiss and spit like a wet cat at Jake from the other side of the fire.

"You two 're done chatting, I think." Jake could only look on warily as Bill held her to his chest in a restrictive bear hug.

"This isn't helping anything, Nea." Claudette's voice was shaken and still raw from screaming. "Jake tried to-"

"Jake didn't TRY very hard. Did you, Jake? Claudette hadn't even been hooked once and you just left." Nea swung her arm out towards Claudette who only looked away, unwilling or unable to disagree with Nea. "Fuck you, ya fuckin coward."

Bill turned Nea around in his arms and lifted her over his shoulder as she struggled. "Perhaps it'd be best if you weren't here for a while, kid. Help me with her, Claudette." Jake could only turn and run. The faint sounds of the fire receded into nothingness.

 

"Why the fuck didn't you get me Jake?!" "Why didn't you save me in the last trial, Jake?" "You should have started on the generator sooner, Jake!" "Sorry to leave you, Jake. You understand how it is, right?"

The endless prattle went on and on. It was almost as bad as finals week during the one year of college he managed to force himself through. Do better. Be faster. Work harder. And whenever the vitriol wasn't aimed at him **,** he was still the go-to recipient of any bad mouthing.

 "I can't believe Laurie just left me there!" "Dwight blew that generator so many times I thought it was his job." "Meg is so incompetent sometimes. You're the only one around here with any skill. I'm counting on you next trial. Don't let me down."

 Jake stopped talking to anyone. He stayed away from the campfire, instead hanging around the treeline.  He did every little thing he could to regain that peace and quiet the had found out in the woods he had chosen before this whole mess. Still, every little annoyance, every hiccup in a plan or miscommunication made its way to him. He almost never responded or added anything **,** but it all came his way regardless.

  
It occurred to Jake, as he lay staring up at the artificial looking stars, that he had run away from everything, only to end up back where he had been to begin with. He was surrounded by that which he had hoped to escape. It was actually worse than running for his life **;** at least that had a clear start and ending. The miasma of interacting with other people could roll in and out like an ill timed tide; at anytime and with no warning. Everything was his problem. Every failure was upon his shoulders. He’d thought he was a step ahead. He thought he’d dodged all of the pressure and the worst parts of life. But here he was, still slogging through that endless quagmire of complexity and blame like a horse stuck in a swamp.

But animals didn’t deal with blame and responsibility. Animals just did what felt natural. When animals were outmatched **,** they would run until cornered. Once cornered **,** they would fight till their dying breath. Even a mouse would bare its teeth when they had nowhere else to flee. Jake Park had run and run until he was unable to run anymore. He had blended in, he had struggled. All that was left, he figured, pulling himself to his feet and walking away from the glow of the bonfire, was to adapt.

 

The walk was quiet, for the most part. There's no one there to pester him, just the sound of dead underbrush crinkling beneath his feet and the occasional malicious call of a crow in the distance. It's a balm on the open wound of his frayed patience. The leisurely stretch of his body was gentle in comparison to the tight pull of trials on every aspect of the body. It's one of the parts of his old life he misses the most and the return to form, funnily enough, is to die for. He had time, out there. Time enough to think about things. He let his feet carry him forwards as his mind carried him elsewhere.

What could he change to fix this? There was no way to get out or get them out. Can't really get rid of the killers, either. But that ws looking at easing the others' problems, not his. The others were his problem. Too bad you can't get rid of them. His footsteps halted in the faux forest, letting the silence settle around him.

Huh.

It was hardly a choice so much as simply something that happened to him. Jake walked  away from the bonfire until it came back into view again as though he had walked around the world only to see the same old sites from a different perspective. He watched silently as they babbled on. The same shit on a different day. Shit talking, recriminations, poorly made plans that were designed to only get one person to safety at the others' expense. A perfect cross section of all the worst parts of other people sat in a circle around a fragile flame unaware of his eyes on them.

Suddenly they looked so _breakable_ . They were so loud, so demanding **,** but he could make them _silent._. He could feel it **,** so close. All he had to do was reach out and...

  


BLACK WOODS:

SILENT COTTAGE

Jake knew this place like the back of his hand. There was his old cell phone, still on the kitchen table, doubtlessly out of battery with no reception. His dilapidated bed and the blanket his grandma had made him years and years ago were still sitting in the corner. He could even see the outhouse from the open window upstairs. He was home again. He was alone.

Then **,** the sudden, all too familiar sound of a generator popping ripped through the quiet air **,** and Jake was furious. He wasn't alone in here, he wasn't alone anywhere. If he wanted freedom **,** he'd have to make it. Fuck everyone between him and some goddamn peace and quiet. Fuck everyone _point blank._

Jake stalked through the darkness, every inch a predator on the hunt. He could see where someone had kicked over his pot for collecting rainwater **,** the trampled remains of a rabbit snare. Someone was here. They were close. Their presence gnawed at him from the inside out. He wanted them gone almost more than he had ever wanted anything before.

He found Dwight first. The obnoxiously red tie  swung like a beckoning hand around Dwight’s neck. The muddy riverbank was still adjusting to the uninvited footprints that marred its surface.He and Nea had their hands in a generator, fixing belts and tightening bolts. The unwelcome grating of rusty parts intensified as it came to life under their attentions. All Jake could think about was how awful the noise was, how much he hated it. How much he hated Dwight and his shitty middle management attitude and undeserved smug superiority. He hated Nea and her useless rebellion against the very concept of silence and co-operation. Dwight continued working obliviously, as Nea finally noticed him. The look they exchanged spoke volumes **:** with a single gesture of casual hatred she stood, raised her arm **,** and flipped him off.

Three things happened at once. Nea silently told Jake to go fuck himself. Dwight fumbled on the generator again. Jake screamed. Rage tore through him like a dam collapsing. Something was happening to his body that he didn't understand and he hated that he didn't understand it. He hated that the others were doing this to him, he hated them for taking away his peace, for dragging their bullshit into his _Home._  He had to get rid of them, it was all he could focus on.

With a rage fueled leap **,** Jake sprung across the river on changed legs. An open handed swipe carved a hole in Dwight's shitty button down and the shitty shoulder inside of it. Nea took off running like a scared rabbit, sacrificing Dwight for a chance to save herself. It might have worked if Dwight hadn't gone down so quickly. For all his so called superiority **,** Dwight hadn't even moved **;** all he did was stand there and stare with his mouth agape. Jake hated him and that mouth of his. Dwight went onto the hook with hardly a struggle and he hated hearing him scream almost as much as he enjoyed it.  

Jake stopped for a moment to just look at him. Dwight swayed on the hook, his endless yelling exchanged for a quiet whimper of pain. God _,_ it was so satisfying. He could have stayed there all day, but if there was one there was more. And he would make them leave him alone. What they wanted didn't matter anymore.

The night wore on. Jake leapt through windows and over downed pallets. He rammed into generators, forcing them into silent dysfunction. He smelled them as they sweated in fear and heard their hearts pounding with fervor as he chased them down. All that was left was Nea, with her shitty beanie and her high and mighty expectations. Not two feet away from the exit gate he caught her in his jaws and dragged her back towards him.

So often Jake had wanted to just grab Nea and Shake Her until she shut up and he was going to enjoy doing it now. He sung her side to side until he could feel her spine snap on his tongue and her head lay limp against the ground in a puddle of her own blood. And with that it was quiet again. It was quiet! Fucking finally! Jake laughed and laughed until he howled long and low and victorious.


End file.
